Goldfinger – DB5 Car Chase

Goldfinger – DB5 Car Chase

This clip highlights three things: the DB5 and its gadgets, and the death of Tilly Masterson at the hands (hat) of Oddjob, and an emotional Bond, as we saw in Dr. No.

It is rumored that the producers wanted to use a Jaguar, but Jaguar refused to provide cars for the film.   They then went to Aston Martin, and Aston Martin, of course, provided two cars for the movie.   What was Jaguar thinking?  This Aston Martin was also used in Thunderball and sold to a private American car collector for about $4.6 Million over 40 years later. There is another version of the story that says EON Productions had to pay for the Aston Martins.

Notice the sound effects in this clip, and remember it won an Academy Award for sound effects.   The motor sounds, road sounds, gadgets, bullets being fired, the crash of Oddjob’s hat striking Tilly are all first-rate.

More Tender Side of Bond

Here, we see another glimpse at the more tender side of Bond, as we saw in Dr. No when Quarrel was killed and Bond walks over to look at Quarrel, sadly and reflective.   Here, he does a similar thing.   When Oddjob strikes down Tilly during the gunfight between Bond and Goldfinger’s Asian henchmen, Bond gives up the fight. Doing so, he runs over to the body of  Tilly.  Bond gently rolls her over, realizing she is dead.  He glances at Oddjob’s hat and is obviously sad, maybe even emotional, as he looks at her face.  Examine Bond’s face as he looks at her – he is emotional.  And then he clenches his jaw, indicating that he is angry, and will try to avenge her death.  All in one quick shot – brilliant.

The DB5, Car Chase

Of course, we move through this scene as Bond is avoiding his pursuers with skilled driving and the DB5 gadgets – at one point, after Bond activates the smokescreen, Tilly smiles broadly, and we, the audience, are thinking they will be safe and will shake off their pursuers.

Then Bond uses the oil slick, and another car chasing them crashes off a cliff and bursts into flames, much like we saw the hearse in Dr. No plunge to a fiery grave.  In this clip, the car crashes, bursts into flames, crashes through some small trees as it rolls downhill, and the trees follow it in flames as it crashes into a wall at the bottom.   A beautiful scene, even though most cars will not burst into flames when crashing like this as we said in our Dr. No podcast!  But great drama!

We also see Bond raise the bulletproof shield during this chase.  SpyMovieNavigator always wondered why the front windshield is bullet-proof as we will see in another moment in this clip as the old lady gatekeeper fires a machine gun at Bond’s windshield.  Yet, he needs the bullet-proof shield to protect the rear window.   Maybe just extra protection by Q, thinking most dangerous scenarios would be a chase from the rear.   Or, maybe even to block out the targets inside the car.   But it’s a cool gadget nonetheless.

Tilly Dead and the Capture of Bond – Why Did They Make Him Drive His Own Car?

Lastly, after Tilly is killed, you see the bad guys carry her body off as Oddjob grunts for one of his, I think, three or four grunts in the film.   Then, they make Bond drive his own car back to Goldfinger’s headquarters.  We are thinking – well, you kind of know the car is latent with gadgets – he used a smoke screen, oil slick, read bullet-proof shield already – what next?  Well, they make Bond drive his car anyway.

Q’s forethought was right on the money again – the ejector seat!  Yes, the Goldfinger goon who is in the passenger seat with a gun on Bond gets ejected – notice the very surprised look on his face as he glances up at the roof for a second before ejection.   Bond then uses the front machine guns to try to escape, the gate lady fires a machine gun at the windshield, and eventually Bond crashes his car and they capture him.

All in all, this Goldfinger – DB5 car chase is a great chase scene, with lots of nuances.  And one that makes sense in this film.   And now Bond is captured . . .

Goldfinger – “No Mr. Bond I expect you to die!”

Goldfinger – “No Mr. Bond I expect you to die!”

After the car crash, and after Tilly Masterson, Jill Masterson’s sister, is killed by Oddjob, Bond now is in Goldfinger’s control.   He finds himself strapped to a metal table, as Goldfinger is about to demonstrate his laser beam.  Here in the film, the laser beam is directed at the base of the table.  It then is guided to rise-up between Bond’s legs, into his crotch and eventually kill him.   In the book by Fleming, it was a table saw.

The book was published March 23, 1959, while the laser was not invented until 1960.   The first working laser was built on May 16, 1960, by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories based on the theoretical work of Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.

Goldfinger – The LASER and “No Mr. Bond I expect you to die!”

The term laser came to be an  acronym for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”   Again, EON Productions was clever at integrating a real-life happening, the invention of the laser, into this film which was being shot in 1963 for release in 1964.  And at the time, this was a very high-tech scene in Goldfinger!  We cannot think of another film using a laser before Goldfinger, so here is another first for EON Productions!

This scene is famous the world over for the laser, and for the dialogue: Bond: “ You expect me to talk?” Goldfinger – “No Mr. Bond I expect you to die!”

A couple of noteworthy facts:

  1. Notice that Goldfinger is again wearing something gold – the lapels of his jacket are gold!
  2. When they were filming this scene, of course, the laser was a post-production add-in – they weren’t really using a laser. Instead, to get the important visual of the metal being cut by the laser, one of the production staff was beneath the table with a blow-torch and was cutting through the metal, making Sean Connery genuinely nervous!
  3. Goldfinger reveals the three things he loves about gold: “All my life I’ve been in love with it’s color, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.”

It is another scene where Bond was to be killed by a more elaborate scheme than necessary.  But, it is burned into people’s memories (pun intended) as one of the best scenes from any Bond movie, even any spy movie.

And of course, Bond does survive this.  He convinces Goldfinger that he, Bond, is worth more alive than dead because of his potential knowledge of Operation Grand Slam.

This is another great Ken Adam set design and joins other spectacular sets in Goldfinger.

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